Move to Basic Combat Training

Morning seemed to arrive as soon as my head hit the pillow as we were awakened very early to go to the mess hall for breakfast. During the next week we would have to be ready for several formations each day. Sometimes people would be called out for details such as KP or other duties, and other times we would march to places in the reception station where some of the initial processing would be completed. Photos were taken for our military I.D. cards, uniforms issued and finally, the famous white sidewall haircut of the basic trainee. Everyone looked so different we had to get to know each other all over again.

The reception station hadn't been all that bad as we weren't treated as harshly as most of us expected. Many of the guys started to think the army wasn't going to be so rough after all. Then the day came when we had to collect all our new army issued gear, a big duffle bag full of fatigues, an extra pair of boots and holding onto our dress greens, we boarded buses that would take us to our basic training companies. The buses stopped in a large open field with several drill sergeants milling around. The bus doors opened and the drill sergeants came to life in a most unexpected way for all of us. The drill sergeants started to yell and scream at the top of their lungs ordering us to get off the buses immediately if not sooner and to get into formation. We couldn't move fast enough and no matter where we stood or what we did it was all wrong. Some of the young men started to act like it was a joke and that was their first big mistake as the drill sergeants descended on them like grizzly bears ready to devour them. The brim of the smokey bear hats of the drill sergeant would hit a new trainees forehead as the drill sergeant would get in his face and scream orders and insults. Any thoughts of this not being so rough vanished as trainees were being told to get into the front leaning rest position and start doing push ups. It was very clear that from this moment on we would be in a living hell.

For the next 8 weeks we would have to run anytime we were outside unless we were in formation. There would be lines to wait in for our food, to check out weapons from the armory, when we would be marched to the infirmary for shots, sometimes in one arm, sometimes in both, when it was payday and almost everything else. Hurry up and wait!! We would stand in formations, learn parade drills, march and double time to the firing ranges in the sunshine and the rain, in the heat and the cold. The drill sergeants would look for any opportunity to single someone out for any mistake, shirt pocket not buttoned, being out of step when marching, or any one of a number of things. Sometimes the offending trainee would have to do pushups or some other physical exercise and very often we would all be punished for one person's mistake. It was part of the training, to make us look all alike, to think and work as a team.

The most important part of the training was to change our reactions to what would be required in combat. The normal reaction to danger is the fight or flight response. The drill sergeants worked very hard to make us automatically choose the reaction of fight when we felt any sign of danger. That would be the only appropriate response for anyone who would end up as an infantryman in Vietnam. They had 8 weeks to pound this into our minds and they did it very well. We were called every foul name possible, pushed and driven to the edge of exhaustion. Finally, graduation day arrived and we would be called soldiers. My wife and parents had come to see me and the graduation ceremony. It was very hard to tell my wife about my orders and where I most likely end up. Trainees were not supposed to leave the post but my parents took me off post so Linda and I could have some private time together. The next day most of us would be on our way to advanced individual training for our assigned military occupational specialty (MOS).

It just happened that my orders were for the infantry, MOS 11B10, and to start my advanced individual training at Tigerland, Fort Polk, Louisiana. A guaranteed trip to Vietnam.